"He sees the turtle."

8 Comments

Doesn't make sense. Het as an article is used for dimunitives and singular het words (schildpad isn't one). If you wanted to say 'the turtle' it'd be 'de schildpad', if you wanted to say 'the turtles' it'd be 'de schildpadden'

Yep! Here's another easy rule to remember: many animals take 'de' as the article both in singular and plural. However, when you make them into diminutives, then the rules change a little, but don't worry about that now.

@kumbam @grey236 Here is a list of the most common animals, by category, in English with their Dutch counterparts: http://educatie-en-school.infonu.nl/taal/9424-vertaling-dierennamen-engels-nederlands.html. They are not listed with their articles, het or de, but the majority of those listed take 'de' as their article. The exceptions are: het konijn (the rabbit), het paard (the horse), het rund (the ox), het varken (the pig), het hert (the deer), het nijlpaard (the hippopotamus), and het lieveheersbeestje (literally, dear lord beastie, or ladybug). Luipaard (leopard) takes 'de' as its article even though it contains 'paard.' Also, it is 'het dier' (the animal). I hope this is helpful to you.